Klinsmann: I'll take over at Spurs if there's no White Hart Lane takeover

Germany's 2006 World Cup coach is seeking the right opening to begin his career in club management and believes his former club could provide it.

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According to reports in The Observer, Klinsmann, however, is concerned about majority shareholder ENIC's plans to sell the club and last week attempted to contact the investment group's principal investor, Joe Lewis, to ascertain his exact intentions.

The German would manage Tottenham if Lewis gives him an undertaking that he will not permit a takeover inside the next three years.

Alternatively, if ENIC were prepared to hand over ownership of the company in the near future Klinsmann is ready to enter into discussions with the new owners to see if he could work with him.

Tottenham have been unofficially on the market since last season and the club has met with at least one consortium of foreign investors to discuss a takeover. ENIC, which is co-owned by Joe Lewis and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, holds more than 82 per cent of the fully diluted capital of Tottenham.

Accounting for its complex structure of ordinary and preference shares, the club's current stock market value is over £250m, though Enic's asking price now stands nearer to £450m.

Lewis and Levy's strategy for achieving that price involves accessing the substantial extra revenues that come with Champions League football and securing permission to build a 50,000-plus stadium with matchday revenues comparable to Arsenal's new development at Ashburton Grove. Tottenham's stated target of qualifying for Europe's premier club competition this season explains much of the pressure on current manager Martin Jol and the club's recent failed attempts to replace him.

In August, Levy travelled to Spain with directors Paul Kemsley and Damien Comolli and club secretary John Alexander to offer Jol's job to Juande Ramos.

The Sevilla coach rejected that and a subsequent offer, which he has told friends was worth 9m a year.

Last month, Spurs approached Jose Mourinho within 24 hours of his forced departure from Chelsea, only to be informed that the Portuguese had agreed a severance package preventing him coaching an English club side this season.

Jol remains as manager, though few expect him to still hold the position next season regardless of Levy's subsequent public statements of support.

The Dutchman's authority has also been undermined by Tottenham's transfer policy, which has seen Comolli and Levy reportedly force players such as Darren Bent, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Younes Kaboul on him while failing to provide the left winger and defensive midfielder he had requested.

In addition to demanding assurances about the club's ownership, Klinsmann would not be prepared to work under such a regime.

The German received total control over his technical staff, training methods and national team's preparations for the World Cup finals and would demand equivalent working conditions at White Hart Lane.

In return he is prepared to move himself and his family from California to England, rather than to live part-time in the United States as he did while Germany coach.

Klinsmann, 43, has so far proved unwilling to compromise in his search for a first manager's position in club football.

Last season he was one of several marketable young coaches sounded out by Chelsea as a potential replacement for Mourinho. During one meeting with Chelsea officials in Los Angeles he told Avram Grant, due to be appointed the club's director of football, that he would not be prepared to work with him. Grant was ultimately made Chelsea manager upon Mourinho's dismissal.

"You want to work with the right people at the right place for the right purpose," Klinsmann said in a recent interview. "It is not hard to turn things down if people don't share the same perspective, ambition, philosophy. As manager, you will get fired sooner or later so you should be in charge of everyone involved with football: the players, coaches, staff.

"You are on a lost track already if the president chooses the players or you don't have that power. If you are not given all the tools, don't do it."